When the construction fence finally comes down this week, Belo Garden will become the second downtown park in the city’s 2004 master plan to become reality.

(Brad Loper)

“The grasses and perennials planted this spring will take another two years to fully grow in. It will take 10 years for the trees to look like they’re mature and about 50 years before they really are mature,” said Jacob Petersen, the park’s principal architect.

(David Woo)

“The purpose is to be an oasis in an intense urban environment. It’s a garden where you can feel a sense of quiet,” said Robert W. Decherd, chairman of The Belo Foundation. “Cities have to have places that respond to the human need for trees and flowers and beauty. We don’t have enough of that in downtown Dallas."

(Brad Loper)

Money for design and construction of the $15 million park came from the foundation and Belo Corp. City bond money provided for the purchase and remediation of the 1.7-acre space, a former parking lot.

(Michael Ainsworth)

As part of the total investment in the park, the private foundation of Robert and Maureen Decherd has endowed $1 million toward future capital improvements and repairs.
Decherd is chairman, president and chief executive officer of A.H. Belo Corporation, parent of The Dallas Morning News, and also chairman of Belo Corp., a television broadcasting company whose properties include WFAA-TV (Channel 8). A.H. Belo Corporation was created in 2008 when Belo Corp. spun off its newspaper assets into a separate company.

(David Woo)

Most of Belo Garden is covered by sweeping beds of grasses and perennials, most of which are drought-tolerant native plants designed to change hue and texture with the seasons.

(Brad Loper)

“It was important to respond to all the people who work in offices near the park and to the more and more people who are living downtown,” Jones said. “It also needed to be a gateway for people who are visiting downtown.”

(David Woo)

How well the park gets used will be the ultimate measure of its success, Decherd said.
“A park is a part of the city that speaks to all of its citizens,” he said. “We want to see people down there at all times of the day, every day.”

(Architectural Rendering)

"The fountains create a calming white noise that separates you from the sounds of the city, and the water will have a cooling effect on the plaza on warm days,” Petersen said.

(Brad Loper)

Defining the eastern end will be a wall reaching up to 12 feet tall. Residents of the adjacent Metropolitan condominiums had concerns that it would block their access to the park, but park supporters argued, in part, that it was necessary to create a sense of serenity, and promised it would be clad on both sides in decorative granite.

(Brad Loper)

Supporters of the parks hope that, beyond improving the quality of local life, the green spaces will bring residents and economic vitality to downtown Dallas — and maybe spur developers to invest in good architecture.
“The hope is that eventually someone will build on the parking lot across Griffin Street, and that it will be a building that reflects the beauty of the park,” Petersen said.
“That may be 20 years from now, but 20 years in a city’s life is not all that long a time.”